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Re: This is getting ridiculous (Varroa and OAV treatment)

Originally Posted by Robert Holcombe

I performed a brood break on a large hive with a New World Carniolan Queen per Jennifer Berry's article. The queen and all larval brood were removed but some capped brood remained. I waited a week until essentially all brood were emerged. I OAV'ed and got a total dead varroa drop of 291 varroa. Seven other treated hives with brood showed low dead drops, 50 to 60 in September. A second queen was installed, first queen "disappeared" after release. When laying started up I OAV'ed , ~ 500 dead varroa. They were foraging with nothing else to do, likely robbing too. Fall horizontal spreading and Varroa Bombs seem to be the only logical answer as it has been a repetitious pattern 3 years in a row. In my area, southern Rhode Island, I see a huge rising dead drop counts from my own brood ( low?) and migration( high) about mid October, annually. I will not use synthetics like APIVAR, a philosophical thing on my little farm, but I do use drone removal and OAV for defense in the Fall; winter OAV treatment is the best prevention.

This mirrors my experience this year and last (tho this year much worse) here in Mass, so close to you in RI. Gave 4 OAV treatments seven days apart in August/September; last drop was 50 mites over 5 days. Bottom boards with 2-5 mites over next weeks, jumping to 400+ on October 8. Since then, 6 OAV treatments 5 days apart; drops for each 5 day period went from ca 1000+ to now 2000+ !!! This is insane! I guess that I will keep treating till the numbers drop - if they ever will.

Re: This is getting ridiculous (Varroa and OAV treatment)

Haven't been able to track this down; posted on a local beekeeper's forum - has anyone seen reference to this study?

"There was a study done where a dying, mite-infested hive was marked. The hive died, as expected, but what was shocking to me is that the marked bees were found IN hives all over a 2 mile radius. So in addition to exposure in the field, your neigbor's sick bees ARE IN YOUR HIVE. That is what is going on with all of these thriving August hives that end up nearly empty in October."

Re: This is getting ridiculous (Varroa and OAV treatment)

The October mite drift = welcome to crazy town. I had one colony population swell almost overnight. Not logical that all of it came from hatched brood. Many of us were doing multiple rounds of OAV to knock them back. Down to one or zero drop.

Re: This is getting ridiculous (Varroa and OAV treatment)

Thanks, Kuro - this is a really interesting study and seems to point the way to a clearer picture of the complexities of what may be going on, especially in relation to the "October mite drift = welcome to crazy town" as so well put by LAlldredge!

Re: This is getting ridiculous (Varroa and OAV treatment)

i have 16 colonies that are sisters and half sisters, all with midsummer brood breaks and new queens by july. Full sized hives. i started oav oct 10th or so - first drop ranged from 50 to 2000. Now after 3 OAVs, a couple of hives had drops over 400 still. Gotta do those again.

It almost looks like some went robbing early, then stayed home, others went robbing later, which is weird.

Total drops ranged from 3620 to 230, with everything in between. A couple had drops pretty high still, which means I will do them all again soon, after we finish these couple of fly days.

A beek around the corner who treats with OAV had drops over 1000 on 4 hives for the first treatment. He did MAQS in Aug and mid Sept. And their alc washes were 0/300 in June; all had brood breaks too, or were June splits.
Imagine if I had treated in summer, trying to protect the winter bees - would I have been in for a nasty surprise! Sadly I did not treat (or get a mite count) during the summer, relying on what happened last year - mite drops were 300 total for the 3 hives after no treatment for 9 months prior. Clearly this year was different.

Oh and I know there is a "beekeeper" across the way with 2 hives he does nothing with. I think I will visit in Dec on a fly day, see if they are out... and if not, maybe he'd like a free nuc with my breeding material, and free OAV treatments next year?... get my drones around the neighborhood!

Re: This is getting ridiculous (Varroa and OAV treatment)

Originally Posted by little_john

Where is "there" ?
LJ

I don't remember, sorry. I watch videos of speakers at various conferences, and I think it could be one of those. It was a short video zoomed in on a flower and when the honey bee lit, the mite crawled onto the bee. I don't remember a detailed explanation of how this was done, and frankly I don't think it would make a lot of difference to me whether someone had 1000 cameras on 1000 flowers, or whether it was somehow staged.

Re: This is getting ridiculous (Varroa and OAV treatment)

Thanks - a few posts back Coal Reaper came up with a source: https://news.cornell.edu/stories/201...wers-honeybees which showed something I had difficulty believing - and to be honest something I didn't really want to believe - because if this is indeed a major route of transmission, then it's a real game-changer ...

No wonder the little sods are able to spread so quickly - all it takes is just one mite on just one bee to start an infestation. That's a tough nut to crack. If it took both a male and a female mite to start the ball rolling, then you could flood the area with a strain which produced sterile males - that would work ok. But such an approach (gene editing) wouldn't work here.
LJ

Re: This is getting ridiculous (Varroa and OAV treatment)

34 is too cold SNL...in my opinion. Clusters are too tight for vapor to penetrate cluster. I would say over 40 at a minimum. I told you how my treatments failed because by the time my colonies are broodless the temps are below 40. Two years vaping and no control.

Re: This is getting ridiculous (Varroa and OAV treatment)

Originally Posted by Oldtimer

One OAV treatment each 7 days isn't enough. The mites are faster than that.

Well,,,,yes and no.
If you are in trouble with a heavy mite infestation; yes.
If you have a moderate mite infestation or less, vaporizing weekly, continuously throughout the robbing season seems to keep populations at a reasonable level.
I had 2 yards of 40 hives each that got split every 30 days this year.
When the honey came off, I began running the crack-pipe (Provap 110) by them weekly.
This is the only treatment for mites these hives received this year.
Also, I had supers of crystallized brassica honey that I placed under the double deeps in the hopes that they would clear the shallow supers and move the honey up and store for winter feed.
I pulled the shallows a few weeks ago and all three boxes were STUFFED with bees, wall to wall!!
I'm hooked, on the crack pipe!!

I have exactly ONE more hive than you.
That makes my opinion beyond dispute!